Girl Rising Takes on MHS

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On Wednesday April 5th at 6:30, Milford High School hosted an event like never before; a screening of the Academy Award nominated film “Girl Rising.”“Girl Rising”is a film that advocates for the education of girls across the world through sharing the inspiring stories of nine girls from different nations that fought adversity to seek education and resources that are typically denied to them due to their gender.

This film pushes the absolute need for the education of girls, as it focusing on third world countries and how education can transform society for the better. The focus of the film is to show how if girls around the world are sent to school that they can break the cycle of poverty in one generations. “Girl Rising” proves how educating a population is the smartest investment that could be made.

This screening was the first ever event held by the first year Global Citizen Program at the high school. Elizabeth Allegrezza, Italian teacher at MHS and advisor to the club, explains that GCP “is a new program at Milford High School that has just been rolled out this year. I first learned about GCP at a conference I went to at Harvard University in Cambridge, and it’s a multidisciplinary program that has an academic component, a service component, a senior portfolio component, and a travel component.”

With the knowledge Miss. Allegrezza gained at this conference, she decided that with the diversity, the varied course options, and the availability of exchange programs that Milford High School would allow for this program to be a perfect fit.

Fast forward to April, GCP is holding its first event which was only made possible by GCP member Eliza Valente. Sophomore Eliza Valente over the summer reached out to Miss. Allegrezza about trying to receive a grant from the Milford Cultural Council that would allow “Girl Rising”to be brought to the high school. In the end, Valente was given the grant and the rights to the film, prompting the start of this event.

This screening was not only limited to watching the film, but was encompassed a girl power driven event. Valente and the rest of the GCP Girl Rising Community decided to make this event special, as Ms. Al recalls “ we wanted it to not just be a screening, we wanted it to be a social event. We wanted there to be a guest speaker, and we wanted people to feel like they were attending kind of like a Hollywood premiere. So then we had John Giacomuzzi volunteer to DJ, we had some students that put together some different community art projects, we had a photographer who was willing to come and take people’s pictures in front of a step and repeat that we built, we also had the girl scouts come and kind of cater the event, and we had Milford female artist come and display their artwork in the entrance.”

“Girl Rising”was a huge step forward for the Milford community as this event brought global issues to the forefront of a large crowd, yet most notably to the large amount of young girls in the audience. Two Milford High School students, Lamisa Sheikh and Bridget Madden remarked how important this event was, as Madden recalls how she “thought it was an inspiring community event that everyone could take something away from,” while Sheikh who was there on behalf of the Milford female artist tells of how “There were a lot of pieces there representing female artwork, from drawings to paintings and even ceramics. People seemed to love it. It was interesting to see what pieces different people were drawn to.” In the end Girl Rising was a major success, with an attendance of over 300 people spanning from different ages, to different backgrounds, to different genders.